The composite semiotics of interactional repair in French and Italian TV debates

In this work, the composite semiotics of interactional repair is analysed across n=409 tokens of different repair types in French and Italian TV debates. Three methodologies are merged to understand if variables correlate on the contextualisation of repair and how. Talk in interaction is transcribed and analysed following conversation analytic methods (Sacks et al., 1974). Acoustic analysis is run to detect average means, minimum and maximum pitches movements (Boersma and Weenink, 2014). Facial action units of the upper face are transcribed following the FACS methodology (Ekman and Friesen, 1983 and Ekman et al., 2002). In the datasets sampled, both French and Italian speakers produce AU 1+2 more often than other movements. The duration of facial action units is also considered. Action units (AU) below 500 ms and above 500 ms are distinguished. According to previous literature (Ekman, 1969), movements below 500 ms are involuntary. Data show that both in French and Italian, AUs are more frequently shorter than 500 ms on speech errors, cut offs, and edits and more frequently longer than 500 ms on recyclings and replacements. The movements preceding and following the AU in analysis are also analysed. When AUs at AU-1 and AU+1 differ in configuration or drastically in intensity with respect to the AU in analysis, the AU is said to be in prosodic break with respect to its surroundings thus a cue to the contextualisation of the action it accompanies usually a repair (or an increment repair). In n=409 instances of repair analysed, n=174 AUs in analysis are in prosodic break with both AU-1 and AU+1, and in half of these instances a maximal pitch accent correlates too.